Obama Now Running 3 Wars

Obama to date has three wars on his hands. There’s the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and now a war that he himself started, the war with Fox News Channel.

Tonight we learn that Obama wants to extend the frontlines against Fox News by trying to gather allies in the News business, which for a Commander In Chief, is probably a good move if this was your everyday, run-of-the-mill war. This tactic is brilliant, but it won’t work. Really, think about it… you pick a fight with a News Organization, but for now it’s just you and a few far-left bloggers jumping into the fray. With this latest tactic being announced this evening, it means they want all the other News Organizations in the country to help go after Fox News. And the Obama administration knows that since Fox has become so big that the other news sources would love to help take them down a peg or two. But as with most plans, this one has a couple of holes in it… This will only increase the size of the Fox News audience and serve to drag down any of the other News outlets that join forces with Obama.

Americans have always been fickle about the Media and the Presidency. The general public demands that a Reporter show extra respect for the President, while at the same time, they love and cheer for, a News Org that goes after a bad President. Now add to the mix that it was THE WHITE HOUSE that started this fight, Americans are going to buy extra Popcorn just to see how the News Org will pound on the President. This war is gonna be fun!

Read how some of the so-called Journalists are taking sides and lying through their teeth to ensure that their comments get printed. Editing by me will appear in Green. Enjoy!

“Rather than in any way maturing, Fox has in recent months become more boisterous and demagogic in rallying the opposition against Obama. The “fair and balanced” mask has been slipping with increasing frequency—as when a RNC press release was regurgitated so lazily that it repeated a typo on air or when a reporter wondered why other networks weren’t doing PR for “tea parties” that Fox covered the way the Hearst press covered the Spanish-American war. On Fox, fact-checking about the president’s health care proposal is provided by Karl Rove. For literary coverage, it features the bigot Jerome Corsi’s rants about Obama and John Kerry. Meanwhile, the crybaby Glenn Beck has begun to exhibit a Strangelovean concern about America’s precious bodily fluids, charging the government with trying to invade our bloodstream by vaccinating us for swine flu. With this latest misinformation campaign, Fox stands to become the first network to actively try to kill its viewers.

That Rupert Murdoch may skew the news rightward more for commercial than ideological reasons is somewhat beside the point. What matters is the way that Fox’s successful model has invaded the bloodstream of the American media. By showing that ideologically distorted news can drive ratings, Ailes has provoked his rivals at CNN and MSNBC to experiment with a variety of populist and ideological takes on the news. It’s Fox that led CNN’s Lou Dobbs to remodel himself into a nativist cartoon. It’s Fox that led MSNBC to amp up Keith Olbermann. Fox hasn’t just corrupted its own coverage. Through its influence, it has made all of cable news unpleasant and unreliable.

What’s most distinctive about the American press is not its freedom but its tradition of independence—that it serves the public interest rather than those of parties, persuasions, or pressure groups. Media independence is a 20th-century innovation that has never fully taken root in Europe or many other countries that do have free press. The Australian-British-continental model of politicized media that Murdoch has implemented at Fox is un-American, so much so that he has little choice but go on denying what he’s doing as he does it. For Murdoch, Ailes, and company, “fair and balanced” is a necessary lie. To admit that their coverage is slanted by design would violate the American understanding of the media’s role in democracy and our idea of what constitutes journalistic fair play. But it’s a demonstrable deceit that no longer deserves equal time.

Whether the White House engages with Fox is a tactical political question. Whether we journalists continue to do so is an ethical one. By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations. Respectable journalists—I’m talking to you, Mara Liasson—should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Roger Ailes too happy, so let’s try just ignoring Fox for a while. And no, I don’t want to come on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss it.”

The Economist’s blog Democracy in America also writes favorably about Weisberg’s column, beginning its post by recounting the tale of how a “Thai media mogul named Sondhi Limthongkul [began] using his newspapers and television network as a platform for fierce criticism of his country’s prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra” in late 2005, ultimately helping to set the stage for a coup the next year, Hmmmm, a coup sounds like a good idea at this point.“plunging the country into years of extra-constitutional turmoil from which it is still trying to recover.”

That’s not a strategy Michael Wolff would endorse. He’s got a different plan for the White House: “Don’t fight Fox.”

You can’t fight Roger Ailes—because that’s what he lives for. He lives off your rage and blood. Rather, this is what you do (please listen closely): Exploit the rift that exists between Ailes and the man he works for, Rupert Murdoch.

That rift has grown ever larger because Ailes is the only guy making money for Murdoch now. Ailes has been proven right in his down-low media strategy; Murdoch, who has staked his business acumen (and the value of his company) on his acquisition of the hoity-toity Wall Street Journal two years ago, has been proven wrong. WRONG! It was announced today that The Wall Street Journal has become the largest circulation newspaper in the Nation, surpassing the giant USA Today!

Here’s a program: Lavish incredible attentions on the Journal, interviews, scoops, wonderful photo ops. The WSJ needs this—Murdoch needs this. Build yourself some leverage with Mr. M. In the end, no matter the economics, Murdoch will do what’s best for the Journal—even if that means he has to discipline his cash cow, Fox. . . .

You literally cannot hurt Roger Ailes. But Rupert is more and more a little touchy about his standing in the world. He’s the weak link. No, you people in the liberal Main Stream Media are the weak links!

[…] Obama Now Running 3 Wars « Giovanni’s World giovanniworld.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/obama-now-running-3-wars – view page – cached Obama to date has three wars on his hands. There’s the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and now a war that he himself started, the war with Fox News — From the page […]